OCTOBER 25, 1944

WASHINGTON, Tuesday—I did not have room in my Sunday column to mention the Foreign Policy Association dinner on Saturday night in New York. It was an extraordinary audience—responsive, attentive and enthusiastic! I am sure that speaking to such an audience must have been a great pleasure.

I really think that the reason my husband arrived back here this morning in such good spirits is that both in his rainy drive on Saturday morning and in his talk on Saturday night, he felt himself in contact with a big group of people, and that to all of us is stimulating.

It is the real reason why I hope that whoever is elected on November 7 will not find himself the choice of the minority of those eligible to vote in this country. In serious times, in spite of all the preoccupations and worries which close in on every individual citizen, I think we must recognize that it is the due of every man we put in office in a democracy to feel that back of him really is the majority of people who are eligible to vote. If only a small minority vote, it can always stand in the future as a challenge to the elected official that he does not really represent the will of the people. That is not fair to our public servants in times such as these.

Today I want to apologize to a patriotic group of musicians. They are the members of the N.Y. Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, who played the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven when Secretary Stimson and I spoke for the Treasury Department. We told of the art exhibit which is being sent around the country before the Sixth War Loan Drive begins. The members of this orchestra played without charge. They wrote me rather sadly that their feelings were hurt that I had not mentioned how gladly they gave of their art for patriotic reasons. I can only say that, rather stupidly, I did not ask who played that day; but I am more than glad to say how much I appreciate all that is done by the various orchestras and artists as a patriotic service.

Yesterday afternoon I went to Newburgh, N.Y., to speak at a women's meeting. It was started as a tea for 150 women; but it turned into a meeting in a high school auditorium holding 800 people, and much to my surprise there were quite a number of men present as well as women!

We arrived back in Washington to find that it is certainly milder and less snappy here than it is further north. Perhaps that is the reason why the trees are not as brilliantly colored. Yesterday and the day before, walking through the fields and woods was a joy, because every hillside was a blaze of color.

This is a busy day here. I have a press conference at 11, and then at 12:15 I speak for a few minutes at a rally on the monument grounds, sponsored by the Servicemen's Wives to Re-elect Roosevelt.